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Warning: Spoilers for The Avengers #18!Maybe this is a controversial opinion, but I don’t think Storm should be a member of the Avengers. Hear me out: Storm should absolutely be on Marvel’s top squad. I’m not saying that one of the company’s most powerful heroes should not be listed among Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. But there’s a much better role for her that’s perfectly suited for her major position in the Marvel Universe.
What I’m saying instead is that The Avengers #18 by Jed MacKay, Valerio Schiti, Bryan Valenza, and Cory Petit makes it painfully clear to me that Storm should be leading the Avengers, not just joining them as a regular member.
Merely being a member of the Avengers would mean that Storm is taking orders from Captain Marvel, the team’s current leader. Which, hey, no offense to Carol – I love Cap – but Storm does not need to be taking orders from anyoneat this point in her life. This issue makes it obvious that Storm’s journey over the last few years needs to lead to her leading a team. Eventually, that team must be the Avengers.
Becoming a New Recruit
It was first announced in May 2024 that Storm would be joining the Avengers, and in the last issue, The Avengers #17, that promise came to fruition. After a desperate plea for the team to do better following their failure during the “Blood Hunt” arc, Captain America took the plea to heart. As a result, he starts thinking about what other failures could fall on the Avengers’ shoulders, and he decides that the Avengers should have stopped the mutant hate group Orchis from rising to power as they did.
Sorry X-Men Fans – Cyclops & Storm Confirm They’ll Never Work Together Again
Cyclops and Storm are the most iconic X-Men leaders, but their days of working on the same team are over – and they’re not going back.
This further compelled Sam Wilson to venture out to Atlanta to visit Storm for a proposition: to become the Avengers’ mutant representative. She doesn’t get a chance to answer before Hyperion becomes the Avengers’ biggest threat yet, but The Avengers #18 nonetheless brings Storm into the fold of the team. Storm stands firm that she has yet to say yes, but even the opening crawl of the issue refers to her as “their new member.” Storm’s Avengers membership is all but official, and yet, the moment that stood out the most to me was a moment between Storm and her former X-Men teammate, Scott Summers.
Storm’s Talk with Cyclops Suggests that Storm Should Be Leading
Why Their Conversation Is a Huge Contradiction
The Avengers need a psychic to track down Hyperion, so Storm goes to the X-Men’s disturbing new home base to collaborate with Cyclops on the matter. That’s when Cyclops talks to Storm about joining the Avengers, ensuring her she will always be welcome to re-join the X-Men whenever she wants. Her response is killer: she tells her old friends that she doesn’t see herself in a position to take orders from Cyclops of the X-Men anymore. Shouldn’t the same logic apply to her joining the Avengers?
Looking for more Scott Summers? Cyclops is currently starring in the
X-Men
ongoing series by Jed MacKay and Ryan Stegman, a major title in the larger “From the Ashes” X-Men relaunch.
Don’t get me wrong, I completely understand why Storm’s character would say something like that. She cut ties with Xavier and the X-Men a long time ago. Her stock had risen beyond being an X-Man or even leading the team again. In more recent years, she’s established herself as a capable solo hero, even becoming the Queen of Mars. You can’t deny that Storm’s character has risen into something bigger than the X-Men, but the same logic, ideally, should apply to the Avengers. Her successful independence should make it clear she’s beyond being a standard team player for any team in the Marvel Universe.
Storm Is the Perfect Potential Avengers Leader
Why It Must Happen
I won’t lie, this whole interaction with Cyclops did more to stop me from wanting to see Storm in the Avengers than buy me into wanting to see it come to fruition. There was a time I was excited about the prospect of Ororo joining the Avengers, but the more I read and dissect this scene, the more I think that it doesn’t make sense to see Storm just be another team player again. I think even this very scene tries to acknowledge a concern like this by having Storm say that all Avengers are equal despite Danvers being the chair.
For the sake of truly progressing Storm’s character instead of limiting her, she needs to lead a team if she’s going to join one.
Call me crazy, but that’s a contradiction. A chair implies a leadership role, and if there’s a leadership role, not everyone is an equal. Storm has truly unleashed her full power as a solo hero, and joining any team as another instrument that’s taking orders from someone is like going backward. In my head, the best way to salvage this would be for the Avengers comics to eventually build into Storm taking Captain Marvel’s chair and becoming the leader – or at the very least, build into Storm being appointed to some co-leader role.
I can’t speak to how Marvel’s storylines would get Storm there, but for the sake of truly progressing her character instead of limiting her, she needs to lead a team if she’s going to join one. Otherwise, this Avengers status isn’t anything more than adding a token mutant to a team that wants to compensate for how they failed mutantkind. Maybe that’s a little harsh, but it’s a harsh truth. At this point in her life, Storm makes more sense as an Avengers leader than just another member.
The Avengers #18 is available now from Marvel Comics.
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